Bruins Confirm: Thornton Signed to Extension
Boston Bruins General Manager Peter Chiarelli announced today that the club has signed forward Shawn Thornton to a two-year contract extension through the 2011-12 season.
The 32-year-old Thornton is a veteran of 290 regular season NHL games and has compiled 15 goals, 25 assists and 496 penalty minutes in his seven NHL seasons. This season marked Thornton's third with the Bruins, after signing a three-year contract with Boston as an unrestricted free agent on July 1, 2007. Thornton joined the Bruins
after a one year stint with the Anaheim Ducks, where he won the Stanley Cup in 2006-07.
Last year, he played in 74 regular season games for Boston and set career highs in assists (9) and penalty minutes (141), in addition to scoring one goal. His 21 fighting majors were tops on the team and ranked tied for the fifth most overall in the NHL. He skated in 12 of the team's 13 playoff games in 2010, and has played in a total of 44
postseason contests in his NHL career.
In his three seasons with the Bruins, Thornton appeared in 211 games and tallied 11 goals, 17 assists, 28 points and 338 penalty minutes in the regular season and played 29 games with one goal and 16 penalty minutes in the playoffs.
The 6'2", 217-pound native of Oshawa, Ontario was selected by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the seventh round (190th overall) of the 1997 NHL Entry Draft. He was traded by the Leafs to the Chicago Blackhawks for Marty Wilford on September 30, 2001 and skated in 31 games with Chicago over three seasons. He then signed with the Ducks as a free agent on July 12, 2006.
